Before the beginning
by Perfect Solution
Summary: Young Harry meets a blond boy, who makes him realise: he really doesn't want to be like everyone else.


**A/N:** School's a bummer. I couldn't concentrate on my other stories, so I wrote whatever came to mind. This came to my mind, not sure why, but it just did. I think there should be more stories about little Harry and little Draco. They're fun to read. I don't like the ending of this fic too much, but oh well.

**Disclaimer:** J.K. Rowling owns all! Except my ideas. They are mine and mine alone. The characters, the house, and everything else was created by and belongs to: her.

Enjoy!

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Harry wiped his brow. There were many weeds in the garden, and Aunt Petunia wouldn't be satisfied until they were all gone, he knew. The lawn had to be perfect, as it usually was. Thanks to Harry, though no one thanked him. He didn't even know they were supposed to. He was glad to do the garden work if it meant he would be on his Uncle Vernon's good side. Then he could eat with everyone else, and pretend they wanted him there.

His small hands continued working to pull and yank the weeds out. On more than one occasion, he had dug out some of the flowers and placed them differently, so it would look nicer. He didn't think they noticed though.

The boy stepped back to admire his work. He smiled, almost proudly, at what he had accomplished. The front of his uncle's house was clean and proper and plain. The flowers were simple ones, as the Dursley's never liked sticking out too much. But still, it was nice.

He turned around, only to see a blond boy watching him from the sidewalk. Harry blinked, but said nothing. He knew better than to talk to the kids on the street. The boy was probably a new kid from Dudley's gang, and wanted to beat him up. Harry pushed his glasses further up his nose, hoping it was a bold gesture that made him seem unafraid.

"Why were you pulling plants out?" asked the boy.

"Because my aunt told me too. It's one of my chores." Harry replied. On second thought, the other boy didn't seem so scary. Maybe he was new, and just wanted to be friends. Harry made sure not to get his hopes up, though.

"Don't you have house elves to do that?"

Harry blinked. "No, we don't have house elves." He didn't know what house elves were, but he didn't voice his confusion, incase the boy would think him stupid and leave him alone.

"Oh. We have lots of them." The boy looked Harry up and down. "You're all dirty." he commented. "What's your name?"

Harry blushed and looked down at his clothes. The oversized shirt and pants were, in fact, covered in dirt. As were his hands, and probably his face as well.

"I'm Harry. What's your name? Are you new here?" Harry asked after a hesitant pause.

"I'm Draco. And no, I'm just exploring."

Harry looked down both sides of the street. "Exploring what?"

"This. Where I'm from, it's really different. People don't pull plants from the ground." Harry looked at him and tilted his head.

"Oh. So what do you do to get them out?"

The blond boy looked on either side of him, to make sure the coast was clear. "Can you keep a secret?" he asked in a hushed tone as he stepped onto the lawn to approach Harry. Harry nodded eagerly. No one ever told him a secret before.

"We use magic to pull the plants out. I'm a wizard." Draco explained, pulling out a stick from his back pocket.

"Really?" Harry asked, in awe. The blond nodded, almost haughtily.

"This is my wand." Harry looked at him, not sure whether to believe him or not. The blond then blushed and looked down. "Well, no. It's my mum's wand. But she said I could take it while I explored, incase I got into trouble." His eyes locked with Harry's in anticipation, as if anything could pop out right at that moment. "I can get my own when I'm old enough though."

"How old are you now?" Draco blinked. Was that _all _the boy could ask? He had just told him he was a wizard, and he asked his age? Draco looked at the dirty boy coolly.

"I just turned seven last week." Draco said, saying it as if the world should be proud of him.

"Oh. I'm turning seven soon." Harry said, smiling. Draco couldn't help but smile back. "So you can do stuff with the wand?"

"Yeah!" Draco's eyes lit up, then he tried to act indifferent as he twirled the wand in his fingers. It didn't work though, since his hands were too small, and the wand fell to the floor. He picked it up and blushed, but Harry didn't seem put off by the failure of the stunt. "I can do everything with it! It's magic. But you can't tell anyone."

Harry nodded. "I promise I won't." He grinned. This meant he had a friend. An actual friend. Draco grinned back. This was his first real friend as well. He had met others, but they didn't seem to 'friend like'. They just talked about their mummies and daddies and about things that bored Draco. Draco wanted to have fun and run around, but his father had already chastised him about things like that.

"Can you turn a frog into a prince?" asked Harry, almost bouncing up and down as he stared at the shiny stick.

Draco raised a blond eyebrow. "Why would I want to do that?"

"I dunno." Harry shrugged. "But could you?"

"Of course. But I don't feel like it right now… plus there aren't any frogs here."

"Oh." Harry replied, still grinning. He hadn't talked with someone his age for this long before. At school, Dudley made sure no one hung around him, or they'd get just as much a beating as Harry got from him. Or Dudley would convince them to join his gang. He really didn't like Dudley.

"So, you live here?" Draco asked, looking at the white house that was identical to the others. Harry nodded. Draco's eyes widened, as he remembered something his father had warned him about. "Are you… are you a wizard too?" he asked in a whisper.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so."

Draco gasped. "Oh no." He started fumbling with his clothes, looking nervous and awkward. Harry felt a pit beginning to form at the bottom of his stomach. He knew that look. His new friend didn't want to be around him anymore.

"I'm sorry…" Draco said, looking at Harry. "I'm not supposed to talk to muggles. I can only talk to wizards. Father says muggles aren't good. They aren't like us." The boy bit his lip, thinking hard. Harry began panicking.

"I'm sorry. It's not my fault. What do I have to do to be a wizard? I'll do it. Whatever it is." Harry pleaded desperately.

"My father says it's something you're born into." Draco said, still feeling uneasy. He didn't want to think about how disappointed his father would be with him if he found out about this. He _really_ didn't like thinking about that. "I should go." Draco said, turning around. He didn't want to leave his new friend, but his father might not talk to him if he knew. And Draco just wanted to be with his father, because he was almost never there. He meant so much to Draco. Draco felt his eyes water up at the silence his father would give him if the news ever got to him.

"Wait! I can… I can do something!" Harry cried, almost frantically. The blond turned around to face the dirty boy.

"What can you do?" he asked, rubbing his eyes absently.

"Okay, but you can't get scared, okay?" Harry said, looking down, then back at Draco, then down again. "Promise me you won't get scared. And… and you can't tell anybody. Promise?" Emerald locked with grey, and Draco nodded.

"I promise."

"Okay." Harry smiled slightly and bit his lip. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And he hissed. Draco watched him, completely confused at the sounds the raven-haired boy was making.

More hissing sounds came from Harry's mouth and Draco continued to watch, intrigued. Harry was staring at the grass, looking for something. A snake crawled its way to Harry, and hissed back at him. Draco's eyes widened in surprise. Harry noticed Draco's change and immediately stopped hissing.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Don't be scared. I'm sorry." Harry spoke quickly, afraid Draco would run away screaming. But Draco did nothing of the sort. He just smiled.

"It's okay. Don't be sorry, I won't tell." Draco was beaming now. "I think that qualifies you. I'm sure Father won't be so mad now." Harry beamed broadly, unable to believe his ears. Draco was going to stay. Harry ran to the boy and hugged him tightly. Draco smiled happily and hugged back.

Finally, Harry pulled away and looked at the snake. He hissed something and outstretched his hand towards it. The snake climbed onto Harry's hand and wrapped itself around his arm.

"Want to hold her?" Harry asked hesitantly. Draco nodded excitedly and outstretched his arm. Harry hissed again, smiling, and the snake looked at Draco before sliding up unto his hand and arm. "She likes you." Harry said, looking up at Draco, who was beaming proudly.

"Tell her I think she's pretty."

"Okay!" Harry began hissing again, until he heard a voice that made him stiffen and pale.

"What are you doing, pipsqueak?" called the voice of a big, bulky boy, who was about their age, or possibly older.

"Nothing. I wasn't doing anything! Honest!" Harry didn't turn around. Draco watched, unsure what to do. Harry seemed frightened.

"You were hissing? To a snake? You're so weird, Harry." The bulky boy pushed Harry from behind, and Harry fell forward but caught his balance before falling. "You're a freak!" the boy shouted, smiling.

Harry turned to face him. "I wasn't doing anything wrong, Dudley! I finished with the gardening and then I –"

"You finished?" The boy Draco presumed to be Dudley turned to look at the flowerbed. He walked up to it.

"No…" Harry said faintly, and only Draco heard.

"It doesn't look finished to me." And with that said, Dudley began kicking up the dirt and flowers while laughing.

Harry sat down, trying with all his might to will the tears away.

"I'm telling mum when she gets home. I'm going to tell her you were being weird today, and messed up the garden. Oh, Dad'll be mad… Why are you so abnormal? Why can't you be like the rest of us?"

"I am like you, Dudley! I'm just like you! I'm not different, I swear!"

"You were talking to snakes! That's not normal. When you're only friend is a snake… You're not like us Harry." Dudley was grinning. He turned to examine the mess he'd made. "And wait 'till Dad sees what you did. You know how mad he gets when you mess things up…"

Harry's eyes widened, and he crawled to the flowery mess. "I'm sorry. I'll fix it. It'll be perfect by the time they get here. I'm sorry." The boy began digging frantically to save the ruined flowers while apologizing non-stop.

The big mass of a boy turned to face the blond. "And who's this?" Harry stopped digging, but Dudley didn't notice.

"_This_ is Draco Malfoy." Draco replied. He was using the voice he used when he spoke to people he didn't like. His father had told him he should talk to most people that way, to intimidate them.

"You knew here, kid?" Dudley was approaching him, and Harry watched, glaring at Dudley.

"N-no. I'm exploring." Draco's voice tried to stay the same, but his hands were shaking ever so slightly.

"Really? What'cha exploring?" Dudley jabbed Draco's chest with two fingers. "Huh?" He did it again. And again.

"Stop it!" Draco cried. He remembered what his mum had said about trouble, and so pointed the wand at the bigger boy. "Stop or I'll have to stop you myself." he said as menacingly as he could.

"What'cha gonna do? Poke me with a stick?" Dudley asked mockingly, with another shove to Draco. Draco fell to the floor. Before Draco could even cry out in pain, Dudley was thrown across the lawn. Draco forgot about the pain in his rump and stared wide-eyed at Harry, who was standing near the pile of kicked dirt and shaking, with his eyes tightly shut.

A groan could be heard from across the lawn. Draco wasn't paying attention though.

"Harry?" he asked quietly. The shaking boy opened an eye, and seemingly relaxed. Draco smiled at him, and he smiled back. Draco opened his mouth to say thanks, but Dudley interrupted.

"You… you… what did you do to me?" Both boys turned to look at Dudley, who watched Harry with a terrified expression. "I... you didn't touch me! And I... you..." Harry's entire being stiffened, and he wasn't able to form words. Harry stared at the bigger boy pleadingly, then hesitantly took a step towards his cousin.

"No! No, get away from me you freak!" Dudley stumbled to get up and ran down the street. Draco smirked at the sight. Good. He didn't want Dudley there anyway. His smirk was gone when he heard a muffled cry. He turned his head and saw Harry on his knees, rubbing his eyes hard, as if trying to push the tears back in there. It failed though, and Draco saw the tears fall down his cheeks.

"Harry?" Draco asked, concerned, as he kneeled in front of the crying boy.

"They're right. I am a freak. I'm not like him. Why can't I be like him?" Harry sniffled. He looked up to Draco, hoping he might know the answer. Draco kneeled in front of Harry and hugged him.

"You _want_ to be like him?" Draco asked quietly. Harry didn't answer. "I wouldn't want to be like him. He's mean. You don't want to be mean, do you?" Harry shook his head. "Good. I don't like him, and I like you. If you became like him, just think of what would happen!" Draco's voice became high pitched at the end of his little speech, as if what he mentioned would signify the end of the world.

Harry looked up at Draco and smiled. Draco smiled back.

"There. It's okay now. You got rid of him. You saved me!" Draco beamed. Harry blushed, but smiled a bit wider.

"Draco! Draco, honey!" A woman's voice called from down the street. Draco stood up, still half holding onto Harry.

"I'm here, Mummy!" he called back down the street. A tall, elegant, blond woman made her way to the two boys.

"Draco, darling!" the woman cooed. "You're all dirty." she said, with a small smile that made her chastising comment less severe. She began patting down his clothes, trying to smoothen the dirt right off. Draco blushed.

"Mum…" he whined. The woman sighed and gave her son a once over.

"You are heading straight for the bath once we're home, young man. I've been looking everywhere for you. You didn't get into any trouble, did you?" her voice trailed off, as her eyes made their way to the green-eyed boy beside Draco. She looked at him coldly, and then gave the same cold stare to her son. "Draco…" she started, in an almost dangerously low tone.

"Mum! No! You don't understand! He's not a muggle! He's not!" Draco spoke quickly, hoping to get as many words in as possible before his mother began again.

The woman grabbed the blond boy's arm and began walking quickly down the street. Draco continued his pleading as Harry watched them walk away.

"No, Mum! He's not a muggle! He's my friend! My friend!"

Slowly, Draco's image faded away with the woman, as did his voice. Harry watched the street, even though his friend was long gone. He wondered if he would ever see his companion again. He hoped he would. It wasn't every day someone wanted to be with him.

"Bye, Draco. Hope to see you around some day…" Harry whispered into the air, hoping the wind would carry his message. After a few more dreadfully sad moments of staring off in the direction of the street curve, he went back to the beaten flowerbed and started replanting the flowers.

"I don't want to be like Dudley." Harry said to himself. "I will never be like him." That was a promise that he made sure he'd keep in his heart forever, thanks to the blond boy, Draco.


End file.
